Oil spill muck up in San Francisco

People were peeved at the slow cleanup response of a Puget Sound spill near Edmonds a couple of years back, but it can’t compare to the shipwreck in San Francisco Bay right now.

Mayor Gavin Newsom is threatening to sue the responsible party for the spill of the difficult-to-clean heavy bunker fuel, which occurred after a container ship crashed into the Bay Bridge Wednesday. The Coast Guard first said the spill was 140 gallons, then suddenly increased that number 414-fold to 58,000. They waited until 9 p.m. Wednesday night to make that little adjustment.

U.S. Coast Guard Capt. William Uberti has said the initial cleanup response was appropriate, but city officials said today that had they known the spill was 58,000 early on, they would have laid down more boom lines and responded to the event with more urgency.

“When you’re off by 58,000 gallons that’s a big gap,” Newsom said. “This is not acceptable. This wasn’t in the margin of error.”

The cause of the accident isn’t known. National Public Radio this afternoon reported Capt. John Cota passed an alcohol test. The Chronicle reported that Cota “has been involved in a number of ship-handling incidents and was reprimanded last year for an error in judgment when he ran a ship aground.”

Dozens of birds are on the casualty list. And an urgent email went out earlier today regarding shellfish growers in a panic as the oil was offshore and there were no booms in place to protect the oyster beds.

Kevin (Lunney)’s farm has been shut down by the CA Dept. of Health. His beds and the surrounding area got oiled to some degree. He has been issued a claim number.

He reports that what seemed to him at the time to be a breakdown in the government’s response was simply that they were extremely busy. Apparently there was a section of deflection boom deployed in time, but it failed and carried away in the strong current in that location. It seems that what could have been done, was done, but proved inadequate.

Washington formed a state Oil Spill Advisory Council after a couple of accidents around here. Check out their site to see what they’re up to, and if you’re really interested, they’re holding a meeting Thursday in Bellingham.